The top legislature yesterday advanced legislation that would
allow the media to report on public emergencies without the
government's authorization in a bid to improve transparency.
The draft emergency response law, tabled at the 28th session of
the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for
a second reading, requires governments that take charge of
emergencies to provide "unified, accurate and timely information
about the events and their developments".
Compared to the first draft, which included fines of as much as
100,000 yuan (US$13,100) for media outlets that report on
emergencies without authorization or spread fabricated information,
the second draft only bans the making up or spreading of false
information.
In his report to the standing committee, Wang Maolin,
vice-director of the NPC law committee, said the provision on
restricting the media sparked heated discussion among lawmakers
during the draft's first review last June.
He said some legislators argued that it was improper to restrict
media reports, while some local people's congresses also questioned
the restriction.
The people's congress in Dalian, Liaoning, said the expression
"without authorization" was ambiguous and could let local
governments to cover up the truth.
Local congresses in Chongqing Municipality and Hubei and Shandong provinces also argued that
transparency is a key part of handling emergencies and that the
media's contributions should be affirmed.
After considering the matter, legislators decided to eliminate
the mention of fines from the draft. It now stipulates that
offenders will be warned, punished or prosecuted. If their offences
lead to serious consequences, their business licenses will be
revoked as well.
(China Daily?June 25, 2007)